Cohort 5
Heather Valentino EDUCATION • M.S. in Sustainable Management UW-Parkside • B.A. in Environmental Studies Chatham University
ENROLLED • Cohort 5
LOCATION • Willoughby, Ohio
Heather Valentino’s career began working in the private industry, where she learned to analyze and interpret regulations to comply with environmental laws. As society’s expectations changed, Heather transitioned to executing sustainability projects. Heather’s most recent professional assignment was to create a sustainability program for the North America region for a global company. Her responsibilities included developing the strategy, creating and reporting key performance indicators, and delivering a sustainability education series to increase employee engagement. Recently, Heather pivoted and works at a regional public transportation governmental agency, where she is building a sustainability program from scratch. This includes a five-year sustainability strategy for the organization, which encompasses governance, stakeholder engagement, environmental impacts, and diversity, equity and inclusion. She has embedded three priority social impact areas, food insecurity, DEI, education/ literacy, into the annual operational plan. Heather’s love for the outdoors was created by camping and cycling trips as a child. Heather feels that everyone has the ability and the responsibility to live more sustainable. She feels that small efforts by all will contribute to a more sustainable world. As Rachel Carson said, “In nature nothing exists alone.” As a doctoral student in the Educational Sustainability program, Heather is interested in researching how organizations can include sustainability education into their corporate training programs to further their sustainability journey. Heather is interested in developing curriculum that can be utilized both in the private and public sector for adult learners in a non-traditional setting to advance their sustainability knowledge.
UW-Stevens Point
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